An Anecdote Of Pants Tightening Terror!
Okay, maybe not quite terror, but after two weeks of eating all the things, my hobbitesque form is letting me know that a food detox will be my first order of business upon arriving home. Well, right after I hug my corgi for 22 minutes.
I live in a rural area with limited dining options. Also, I’m super frugal and tend to only eat out maybe once a month or so. That said, when I go on vacation I go hard on the eating front. Why? Because dim sum is good and it’s been at least ten years since I had a steamed pork bun.
Aside from absorbing all the stories I can from life’s diverse tapestry, I adore food, especially cuisine that hails from whatever region I’m currently plopped in. This trip has been no exception, and without further fanfare, here’s the highlights!
My husband has a crew that he hangs with in the Xbox realm. They really are a fascinating bunch. One of them is a chef, and Bruce extracted a promise from the hubs that we would visit Lolo’s on our trip to Phoenix. Lolo’s Chicken And Waffles is a soul food joint. Both my grandmas were born in the south so I’ve nibbled on a fair amount of quality fried chicken in my time, but until the other day I had never partaken in the ambrosia that’s is chicken and waffles. Consequently I’m kicking myself that I’ve spent almost 4 decades on this planet without eating chicken and waffles, because my friends, hello yum! A bite of a crispy butter and syrup doused waffle coupled with a bite of crispy fried chicken is just outta this world good. That combo is going on the home menu!
I’m also embarking on a mission to figure out how the geniuses at Lolo’s cook their collards, because the spicy, brothy goodness that I ate also needs to be featured at my home regularly. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
Part of the fun of Lolo’s is the menu names. My daughter ordered the Phat Azz sandwich. Which, to be fair was about the size of my left flintlock. My dish was aptly titled Betty’s Boob, which was one breast and one waffle. I didn’t laugh like a sixth grade boy as I perused the menu. Nope, not at all.
Lolo’s also has dranks. Being adventurous when it comes to comestibles, I ordered Lolo’s signature red punch drank. The combo of red koolaide and other ingredients made my meal that much more enjoyable.
So if you are ever in downtown Phoenix, I totally recommend that Lolo’s wholeheartedly!
Next on this food report is Chinese food. My hubs grew up in San Francisco, so he also grew up eating all the things. Me, with the whole Alaskan upbringing thing, I didn’t try real Chinese food til I was 17. I’ve been making up for it ever since. Whenever I visit an area of large population, I seek out dim sum and yum.
Just down the street from our house is a little ma and pop Szechuan joint. I ordered their Hunan chicken lunch special and proceeded to wag my non existent tail as I plowed through that delicately flavored food fest. The amount of food that was served to me for $5.89 boggled my mind!
I have another Chinese restaurant to mention, a place of infamy to our family both due to the quality of their comestibles and the unique way we were served our dinner, but that table has to wait until I get home, I need my keyboard for that dialogue.
Anyway, back to the noshin! Another stand out in the food department on this trip was The Angry Crab Shack. I don’t know why the crab is angry, probably because he’s sans an eyeball and we ate his brethren, but really there’s nothing to be angry about at the Shack.
For starters, any place that gives me a bib is going to be thought of fondly. Secondly, the idea that you can select things, throw them in a bag, and eat what comes of your combination skills appeals to the residual preschooler in me! Now, I love shrimp, so into my husband’s dungeness crab laden bag I had the lovely folks at the shack throw in a 1/2 lb of shrimp. Then we agreed on a heat level and all the spices. For a glorious time I was transformed to my childhood in Alaska where we used to dip multitudes of freshly caught shrimp in vats of melted butter. I was happier than a cat in a catnip dusted canary cage!
One of my dining compatriots, a lover of heat in food like myself, went further up the heat chain than us all. The young server’s eyes got rather round and she uttered her opinion regarding my bud’s choice of heat. We both smiled at eat other because over time we’ve found that what people think is hot is really not that heaty to us. Once again we were not surprised, as we both tried the level four heat spiced snow crab, it became apparent that while warm, it wasn’t Mercury atmosphere heat level. Of course that means that the next time I’m ever in an Angry Crab Shack I’m gonna have to try the disclaimer laden, eat at your own risk, level five spice mix on my seafood. I can’t wait!
Tomorrow we head home, and although I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, I will definitely miss the plethora of food offerings to partake in. My carcass is probably going to be happy to get back to routine though!
And as most of the time, all of the images in this were taken on the author’s residual spicy iPhone.